The sound of darkness

A tourist rented a room in an inn, and found that he was not alone in that room

Submitted:Dec 27, 2011
Reads: 48
Comments: 3
Likes: 4

That was a day, a day when the drizzly sky was covered in
clusters of dismal clouds.It cracked open with a bolt of
lightning, stabbed down and retreated. The serpent of demon
opened his eyes, and was ready for his next prey.

Anderson walked with his head down to avoid the rain. He was
supposed to be taking the flight to home in the local airport.As
a business man, he's taken his duty in every bit of his
work."Damn the weather! !" He cursed as he slipped on the wet
ground and almost fell down. Just like his godforsaken life.
Anderson never got a chance to get promoted, and with a bunch of
things waiting for him to handle,likemowing the lawn, he started
to feel just like the rain.The rain started to become larger and
it poured down on the lonely and vulnerable umbrella he held,
bought from a umbrella store with twenty percent discount. It
didn't work very well. The water all drifted through the polyster
fibre and wounded down along it like wiggling snake. "Jesus
Christ, it'sfucking gross." He glanced at the drifting water
abhorredly. He was in the middle of an old street. The sign shook
back and forth with creaking sounds，pervaded the pouring rain.

He stumbled and headed towards the apartments on the one side of
the street.The sewagesmelled horribly as the waste was flushed
out from the underground and exposedby the heavy rain. " That's
so disgusting. " He frowned and held his nose. The street was
casted by the thick black except for a glowing light escaped,
like that of a projector's light. Anderson walked by and was glad
to see that there was an inn. The kind of house which usually
sprawled in the countryside. They were of no nice quality, but at
least it could be seen as a temporary shelter. That's what he was
needed.

Inside the inn to the lobby, there sat an old woman behind the
serving chair, reading the newspaper. She raised hereyebtows a
little bit peeked at him through a thick glasses hanging on her
face. " Yes?" She asked. " Oh, is here any vacant left. " "Follow
me. " She raised and Anderson follow her upstairs. She pressed
the switches on the wall and the light cracked open. The glowing
light drove the damp darkness away a little bit.

Now he can see the hallway clearly with his bare eyes. It was
builded probably several decades ago, perhaps even longer, with
the slime sprawled on the floor with effluvium which took after a
dead body byhere might have had a plant, a bonsai or anything
like that back in time, but apparently they had vanished,
swallowed by the endless darkness and the odor. Anderson followed
the old woman upstairs, she seemed to be pretty familiar with the
dark and the dead body odor. She did even not open the light
sometomes. Her skinny body merged in the dakness which looked
like s if she made all of these things.

The vacancy was down at the extreme of the third floor, right to
the balcony. That's a goog thing to him, as it it might mitigate
the odor and maybe he could hear the dripping rain to the gutter.
" We offer hot water, the gas is right there and the hanger is
there. " She said. "Why's there the strange smell?" " Oh, that's
probably the street, we were in the street that wasn't much
pleasant. But I bet you what,we will offer you a cozy room and
there's no need of you to worryvabout that. " She grinned with
her lousy and gross teeth exposed. That surely terrified him.
Anderson was in a minute about to quit the room when he suddenly
realized that here's the only place he could stay for tonight.
Through the window he could see the lightning whipped the earth
hard, struck it with all its might. The tense seized him and a
sense of hallucination pounded his beating heart to made it even
louder. He was in a cage, a cage where there's no way to get out,
and through the fence, he could see the eyes hidden in the far
away shadow of dark clouds. " Are you okay! " said the woman
discreetly. "Oh, I'm fine, this room's fine. How much should I
pay for tonight?" A snicker revealed on thw woman's face, for
deal had been made.

The pale room was pervaded with the stale smell which was
actually worse than outside. The wall was scrabbled with
graffiti; the children drawing of the family, the names: Jimeno,
Site, Geraldo, Peterson..... But the most of them were just
emblazoned with intricated lines, twisted and turned.

Anderson reached out his hair gel and towel, ready for the
shower. With his bare torso, he walked into the bathroom, feeling
sort of relieved. The pervaded mist rose and the hotwater
squirted out of the nozzle, obscured his vision and veiled
everything. But somhow the nozzle shivered and moaned like the
dying person, whipped by the wicked demon. After the showering,
he took a long breath and wrapped him with the towel. He walked
to the door and reached for the knob. Suddenly, the roar of
thunder echoed at the wall and all the light was shutted down. "
Og, great! This is so ironical that I live in the room that
cannot even have the goddamn light. " He groped the thin air and
finally touched the bed and immediately crumpled on it. Through
the dark, Anderson relined and relaxed his eyes,left the past of
glum life.

The sound emerged, it's the sound which was so familiar but so
strange, it was so weak that it was almost not possible to tell.
Anderson snapped his eyes open. It was completely dark in the
room. The plank creaked reluctantly as he leaned up and tried to
hear the sound. The sound quickly slipped from his grasp and
there left the silent, again. He leaned back and pulled
comfortable, there emerged again the indescribable sound as if
something wad rubbing against the floor. What can it be, a rat, a
piece of paper, some occupies downstairs. It couldn't be, not a
chance could it be. Anderson jeered himself as being foolish to
think of other people to be living there. " How could it be, you
dumb. How could it be that anybody other than me will live in
this stale ghetto.

The sound was vague, like the drizzles outside the inn. But it
could not be the rain. It could never be the rain. It felt so
close to him. Anderson shivered and buried himself under the
quilt. " Maybe I should go downstairs and call the landlady.
Maybe I should have the room checked out. " He mumbled to
himself, disturbingly. " Oh, maybe not. " He hated to see that
face again. The scornful expression on her face and the phoney
tone. He stretched out his arms to open the lamp. Doesn't work at
all. " Damn it! " He grumbled distressedly. The room was still
pitch dark. And the sound loomed again, turned louder and louder.
The sound like that of the one from deep throat. The desperating
groan proliferated like a mutated virus, and crept from the right
to the left, approached the shaking body. The body was huddled up
and soaked with cold sweat. The sound was still getting louder
and louder, increased in intensity which resulted in dreadful
hiss and creak. Anderson's heart tightened " What if I died here.
I still has my tax unpaid. And I promised Alex that I will buy
him a new toy. The new toy racing car with the remote control.
The lawn was left unmowed because the mower got broken. I could
have fixed it before I left......" The figure probed out of the
darkness which seemed to be darker than the dark itself. It
wriggler visciously and plunged right towards the swaying body.
The skinny torso, the shrieking sound " hiss, hiss, hiss...... "
goes in a steady and wondrous pace, like the death knell.

" You really think it's just fine! I mean, somebody's get killed
in this place. " " That's fine. This place does have lots of
snakes. They probably sneaked in because of the warmth of the
room! " " So how're you gonna do to that?" " Don't worry. I will
sort that out. I know this place. People have to come because
here's this is the only inn in this place. Just muzzle your mouth
and nobody will know that there's a person died here. " The
landlady squinted her eyes and chuckled. " hiss, hiss,
hiss......" [END]